Who Framed Roger Rabbit
This has always been one of my favorite movies ever since I saw it when it first came out in the theater (one of my earlier and favorite movie theater memories). Since then I have seen it more times than I could possibly remember well enough to count.
I like using the words "contrast" and "context" when talking about movies (or talking about all kinds of things for that matter). This is the movie that always comes to mind first when I think about how much I like those words.
The consists of my favorite historical film genres thrown together: film-noir and zany cartoons. Both of these genres reached their pinnacle around the same time I'd argue, somewhere between the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s. They sprung out of the same Hollywood in the same era, reflections of different aspects of the same American culture. But they are in may ways seemingly completely opposite in tone and attitude. Film-noir is often menacing and scary while classic cartoons are silly and funny. Film-noir is often very gritty and realistic (although yes also stylistic in many ways) while classic cartoons are exaggerated and have hilarious slap-stick violence where all the injuries are cartoonish and thus amusing rather than gut wrenching. Film-noir is often dark or stark in appearance, usually in black and white or with heavy shadows while cartoons are flowing and colorful. When you put a film-noir character in a zany cartoon world or a cartoon character in a film-noir world it adds a flavor of menace or danger to acts that would normally be comedic or laughable. Or it may cause you to find humor in a situation that would normally seem to be dark and grim.
These are only some of the dimensions. Both of the genres are so fleshed out that if you are a fan of both genres this movie really brings a fuller range of emotion to a bigger world than either of them could either create on their own.
Yes I'm gushing here, but this movie brings out the perfect king of ying and yang that I get out of my favorite films. It has to be the right king of ying and the right kind of yang though.
If you are fans of either of these genres and you've actually never seen this gem before please do yourself a favor and see it soon!
And has anyone out there actually ever read the original novel this was based on? Who Censored Roger Rabbit? I read that one is based more on comic strip characters over cartoons and is a lot more crass. Can anyone who has read it and also loves this movie recommend it?
Rating: 10/10